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Washington Post Ranks CJ 68th in America

The Washington Post named Chaminade Julienne one the most rigorous high schools in America for a third consecutive year.

CJ is tops in the state when compared with other Ohio private schools and the 68th most challenging private high school in the nation according to columnist Jay Mathews’ annual “Challenge Index" list. The Catholic, co-educational institution in downtown Dayton is one of 38 in the state and four in the Miami Valley included on the list of more than 2,100 public and private schools.

Rankings are determined by dividing the number of college-level tests a school administers in a given year by the number of graduating seniors. This ratio, provided it is above 1.000, is then used to rank schools against one another. CJ came in the top seven percent nationally in 2014 and received its highest rating ever at 1.684.

“I designed the list to identify the schools working hardest to challenge average students with Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education courses and tests, good preparation for both college and the workplace,” Mathews wrote in his April 7 column explaining this year's rankings.

“This is in contrast to the usual ranking of schools by test score averages, which is more of an indication of how affluent the parents are than of how good the school is,” he continued.

Other local schools making this year’s list were Oakwood (2.640), Centerville (1.697) and Bellbrook (1.304). Cincinnati Walnut Hills (5.749) topped the list in Ohio while California’s American Indian Public Charter (21.91) came in at No. 1 overall in the country.